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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Those Holes in My Face

Who knew?! I mean really. Who knew how much influence the two holes that sit in the enter of my face and the caverns that are connected to them play in my life? I'm staggering with surprise here.

A few weeks ago I was knocked on my rear end by a cold. I mean, it was a cold. Not a biggie, right? Well, I had heard of others who'd been put out of commission by this season's cold, and I kind of poo-pooed it. A few of the kids started winter break with it, and I was sitting there all smug thinking about how I had dodged the bullet.

Well...as you can probably guess, I paid for that smugness later. I got hit with it a day or two before New Years. It hung on and hung on, and of all the members of the family, I was the one down and out for a number of days. It was a COLD! Not the plague. Not typhoid fever. A COLD!

Well, after six days, I decided I'd had it. It was time for the kids to go back to school in the next couple days, and I HAD to be up and moving. So, I went to the doctor.

He told me it was probably just a virus but because it had been so long, he would prescribe something. I said, "Okay," and happily went on my way. Because I'm allergic to sulfa and penicillin, they prescribed something else. I didn't ask what, but he told me it was a powerful one that would kill both the good and bad bacteria, so I needed to eat a yogurt a day.

When I picked up the prescription, I was told that I needed to time things with it. I couldn't eat any of the 42 (exaggerating here, but you get the idea) things they listed at the same time as the medicine as it would tamper its ability to absorb into my system. No iron, no calcium, no..... You get the idea.

The pharmacist shared with me that it was doxycycline a derivative of tetracycline. Woah! Wait.... When I was pregnant with #3, a nurse, who was way more liberal-thinking about pregnancy and medicine than I was, shared with me the fact that there are really only two medicines that pregnant women should NEVER take. By the way, I'm not sharing this because I'm pregnant, because I'm NOT, but she said those two drugs were chemotherapy drugs and tetracycline. So, when I find out that the doctor has prescribed this drug that causes birth defects, even though I'm not pregnant, I KNOW I have something powerful here. YIKES!

Well, I started taking it and within three doses, my stomach was KILLING me--yogurt or no yogurt, so I stopped taking it. Plus, he'd told me it was probably just a virus, so what good was it doing me anyway to take these terrible things? The sinus symptoms started coming back. Hmm. Virus? Maybe not. A couple days later, I started taking the meds again. Again, the stomach and then the stomach flu-like symptoms. I stopped. I'm done. I decided that I'd rather have the sinus problems than the stomach problems.

Anyway, what this incredibly long story leads to is that I'm starting to figure out other ways to deal with this sinus stuff. In the meantime, I'm learning that it may be the sinuses that have been causing all kinds of trouble with all kinds of things. I mean, they're just these holes in my head, right? I'm even thinking now that it may have caused this. Here's why....

A couple years ago, a friend brought us a Netipot. He said he'd seen it on Oprah and he and his wife had been using them and how wonderful they were.

The next time I had a cold, I tried it, and it was great. Weird, but great.

It has been sitting in my cupboard since then. Since I'd only used it a couple times with that cold, I kind of forgot it existed.

I got it out yesterday morning and decided to give it a try again. I used it again last night. The amazing thing is that the dizziness I've had on and off for the past number of years is gone. Fluke? Coincidence? When I went to bed last night, I realized that there were parts of my face where I could feel a clearness that I hadn't had for a really long time.

I'm hoping to get on top of the sinus infection, but better than that, I'm hoping to clear up a bunch of problems. Wow! Who knew?!

Oh, and the Warden was reading online the other night and found out the doxycycline is also used to battle anthrax, so I told him I was just going to tuck those pills away until the day that I contract that one. Well, now I feel really prepared. :oP

4 comments:

I haven't followed up or fact-checked any of them, but I've been hearing some disturbing safety concerns about netipots, might be worth following up on. I think it was life-threatening illnesses (and in a a couple of cases, fatal) from microbes in the water or something (so maybe purifying the water would help?)

Anyway, Doxycyclene and I are not friends. I was given it one time, and I'll spare you the gory details, but at one point I was almost willing to just die to get it over with, and will probably have the side effects it left behind permanently. Gah. I love modern medicine, antibiotics included, but there is a downside to glibly assuming all the kinds are worked out of the pharmaceutical technology we take for granted and just pop into our mouths. (Or that individual effects will be the same between people, or for the same people at different times.)

Just be sure you're sterilizing it and using good sterile water, two people died recently from non-sterile Neti Pots when bacteria were introduced into their system so close to their brain:http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/12/19/brain-eating-amoeba-fatalities-linked-to-common-cold-remedy/But that's just two out of millions, I know it is still a great therapy. Just...better safe than sorry, right?

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Being the "Chief Inmate" of the Madhouse is a full-time job. I share my duties with a giant of a man, whom I refer to simply as "The Warden." He is like no one else. We've been running the Madhouse for more than 20 years and are glad to say that we are living to tell about it. The Madhouse has reached capacity with seven fellow/junior inmates and our equally insane dog Maggie. The Madhouse is my location to, as the Warden would say, "Spill [my] guts" to any and all who will read. So find yourself a corner in one of the padded rooms, and enjoy some time with us. You never know what you might find.

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